Why Do Some Recordings Sound Great and Others Dead?
I listen to Radio Paradise MQA on my NODE 3, SMSL M400, B and O Beolab 8000’s and Hsu 15in sealed sub. The acoustics in my room are poor. I’ve noticed that some recordings sound very realistic. For instance the vocals on a Stabat Mater dolorosa hymn sounded great. But a Nora Jones recording was terrible. Her voice was lost in back of some murky instruments. I’m familiar with this recording listening to it on my iPod, where her voice shines out and the music is good. I’m wondering why the big differences?
Some recordings sound great and others dead because of differences in recording, mixing and mastering. I hear five different classes of sound quality in my collection of albums, even ranking each album D, C, B, A, A+ based on sound quality only. This has nothing at all to do with the "music quality" of the material or the artists. |
@jjbeason14 I have found odds are good a classical or jazz record will be in class A, with some very spectacular recordings getting into class A+. Most pop and rock are in class B, with quite a few in class C. The only class D albums I have were recorded before 1950. |
